Hang Seng Index falls 1%, Tencent’s stock breaks below the HK$400 mark.

Zcash developers have reached consensus on the NU7 upgrade, set to activate at block height 3,543,405 (estimated around November 5). The upgrade will reduce block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, tripling transaction confirmation speed. Additionally, 60% of fees collected per block will be removed from circulation, with plans to return these funds to miners starting February 2031, while the original block reward halving schedule remains unchanged in the interim. Furthermore, Zcash’s original privacy protocol Sprout will be permanently shut down after the upgrade; funds not transferred in time will become inaccessible. The proposal was put forward by developer Sean Bowe and approved by the Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) editing team, but it still needs to be formally merged into deployment specifications and integrated into node software before it can officially take effect.

Before U.S. stock market opens, all three major index futures rose, with the Nasdaq 100 futures up around 0.80%. In terms of individual stocks, according to BIT (bit.com) market data, boosted by strong quarterly results, SpaceX gained nearly 9% to $161.08. Additionally, driven by merger rumors, Tesla rose 2.67% to $383.68. AI-related stocks mostly advanced before the market open: Nvidia was up 1.8%, AMD up 2.5%, Intel up 2.9%, SanDisk up 2.9%, Western Digital up 2.1%, and Seagate Technology up 2.4%. Meanwhile, optical communications and Neocloud-related stocks saw notable gains: Credo (CRDO) jumped over 5.2%, Lumentum (LITE) rose around 3.98%, and CoreWeave (CRWV) gained around 2.95%. For crypto-related stocks, BNB Standard (BNC) surged over 7.8%, and Strategy (MSTR) added around 1.99%.

According to Kyodo News, a source familiar with the matter revealed on Wednesday that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will assess whether the underlying inflation rate has hit its 2% target at next week’s policy meeting. A confirmation would mark a symbolic turning point for the BOJ, signaling an end to its long-standing monetary policy stance aimed at combating deflation. The BOJ first set the 2% inflation target in January 2013. Despite implementing aggressive monetary easing programs, the central bank has repeatedly pushed back its timeline for achieving the goal. If the target is ultimately met, it will come nearly 14 years after the target was first introduced.

MEXC announced yesterday it would halt services for users in Russia and Belarus, triggering a roughly 15% drop in its native platform token MX and sparking widespread debate in the crypto community. According to TradingBeats data, among major crypto exchanges, Russia is the top traffic source for Bybit, HTX, and MEXC, accounting for 23.94%, 13.76%, and 10.53% respectively. On Binance, the largest exchange by trading volume, Russian traffic ranks only third from the bottom, at 1.54%. U.S.-based compliant exchanges Coinbase and Kraken have the lowest share of Russian traffic, at just 0.24% and 0.16% respectively.

DeFi digital credit protocol Saturn co-founder Ellis Osborn tweeted that Saturn has used its own funds to participate in the SATS preferred stock IPO of Bitcoin treasury company Strive, adding that this participation will not impact USDat, sUSDat, Saturn’s existing products or holders. Osborn noted that Saturn will in the future explore offering similar tools to its global investors. Earlier reports stated that Strive issued SATS, a fixed-rate cumulative perpetual preferred stock with a 15% annual yield, which pays dividends on every business day. Its liquidation priority ranks below Strive’s floating-rate preferred stock SATA and above common stock ASST. Strive priced the SATS offering at $90 per share, issuing 7 million shares to raise approximately $630 million, with the deal closing on October 20.

Crypto research firm Delphi Digital has released a report titled "Bullies Always Win: Why Speculation Will Be the Theme of the Next Decade", naming Robinhood (HOOD), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and Lighter (LIT) as assets aligned with this investment theme. The report contends that technological shifts, paired with economic and monetary system pressures, are fueling speculative demand. Its investment strategy centers on allocating to platforms that can generate steady revenue from trading activities, with a focus on profitability, fee-capturing capacity, and user channel strengths. The report’s authors disclosed that they hold positions in the aforementioned assets.